


The Devil They Knew

by calliecaddie



Series: Reassemble [2]
Category: Daredevil (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, Canon Compliant, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-29
Updated: 2020-04-29
Packaged: 2021-03-01 19:33:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,503
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23912359
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/calliecaddie/pseuds/calliecaddie
Summary: Karen Page and Foggy Nelson blinked and the world was suddenly different. As they navigate an unfamiliar version of their normal world in search of their friend, they instead reunite with someone much more terrifying.
Series: Reassemble [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1722196
Comments: 1
Kudos: 16





	The Devil They Knew

Karen Page walked through the door into the Nelson and Murdoch offices, her hand clenched as if she were holding a paper bag. 

“Sorry I’m late, but have some extra day-olds to…”

She could’ve sworn it was daytime as she was walking in, but it was nighttime in the unlit office space she’d walked into. Karen became dazed for a moment, wondering where the time had gone. “Hello?” she called to the dark room.

“Karen?” Foggy answered from the darkness, making her jump.

“Foggy, are you there!?”

“Y-yeah, it’s me, uh…” Foggy stepped out of the darkness to be by Karen’s side, looking as confused as she was. “Weren’t you just coming for breakfast?”

“I was, I had the bagels and…”

Karen stopped for a moment as she noticed the desk on the far end of the room, illuminated by strips of streetlights from outside. As she stepped closer to it, she noticed a thick, crumbly layer of dust on the surface. She drew one finger across and rubbed the dust in between her fingers. She swallowed nervously, worrying that much more had changed than just the time of day.

“Hey, look at this,” Karen said, showing him the dusty desk. “That’s weird, right?”

“What the hell?”

Karen’s voice was shaky as she spoke. “Foggy, something’s wrong.”

“Wait… Matt!” Before they even attempted to make sense out of anything, Foggy frantically looked around the room. He was looking for his friend and got increasingly worried when he couldn’t find him.

“W-w-was he here with you?”

“Yes! He was just here! We were talking about coffee and smells and shit!”

She stuck close behind him as he kept searching. “Okay, what is going on, Foggy?”

Foggy grasped Karen by the shoulders gently, trying to remain calm. “I don’t know,” he shrugged. “I don’t know either, but let’s just find Matt first and maybe he can fill us in.”

She slowly but surely nodded in agreement. “Well, it doesn’t seem like he’s here. Let’s go check his apartment.”

“Okay… okay, good plan.”

Foggy and Karen made their way outside. As they made it onto the moonlit streets, there were several people throughout the roads, each of them as confused and unsettled as they were. Many of them seemed like they were placed haphazardly on the streets, as if they had just appeared there. 

As the crowds increased, they became unruly. They started to clog up the roads as they stopped passersby and tried hailing down taxis. The two of them stopped in their tracks when they saw the commotion.

Foggy looked away and held Karen by the arm. “Look, here! Let’s cut through the alley.”

With Karen in hand, Foggy started rushing down the alley to get around the increasingly-unruly crowd. Yet no sooner than when they entered the shadowy inbetween did they run into a scruffy-looking gang of misfits loitering in the alley. They stopped whatever they were doing and took notice of them. Foggy stopped and went to shield Karen, but before he could, Karen stepped in front of him to do the same. She reached into her purse, her fingers wrapping around the grip on the firearm she kept in there. 

A pale-skinned boy with a tattoo across his forehead that read “Fear Itself” approached them. He licked his lips hungrily as his gang rallied behind him, hollering obscenities at their latest prey. The tattooed boy raised his eyebrows and said “You two new around here?”

Karen tried to remain brave, struggling to remember if her gun was still loaded. “Look…” she muttered. “We don’t want any trouble. We just wanna get through the alley.”

The boy chuckled and gestured to his crew, smiling in agreement. “You really must be new. Because we’ve been squatting here for a few years now.

“Well, no offense, um…” Karen struggled to find something to call her opponent.

“Call me Mister Fear.”

“Right… well, I can’t say I’ve ever seen you here before today.”

“Now, uh… that can’t be right.” He approached Karen confidently, his boys not too far behind.  
“This here’s been our turf ever since the Vanishing.”

Karen blinked strangely, her hidden gun still firmly in her hand, blood beginning to rush through her ears. “Vanishing? What vanishing?”

Mister Fear cackled and pointed at Karen accusingly. “You don’t know!? This bitch is telling me she don’t know!”

“Look, we’re not here to move you anywhere. Just let us through!”

Scratching his chin, Mister Fear gestured toward the two of them. Karen dragged the gun out of her purse only slightly. Foggy tried to put on a brave face as he put up his fists.

“You really don’t know? Now, that’s a first!” Mister Fear chuckled again before his smile melted off. “Why don’t we teach ‘em our version then?” 

Mister Fear’s crew moved to surround them. Karen pulled out her gun, hoping to at least keep them at bay. But as she pointed her weapon at them, a monster landed on one of them in the darkness. Karen staggered backwards into Foggy, the both of them watching in terror as a shifting shadow leapt from crook to crook, dispatching them with ease. 

Foggy could just make out the dark figure kicking one of them swiftly and bluntly in the side of the head, causing him to spin in place before collapsing, yelling that he couldn’t hear out of that ear anymore. Karen heard the sickly crack of bone breaking, a bloodcurdling scream echoing throughout the alleyway. 

With many of the crew members brutally disabled, the monster approached Mister Fear slowly, menacingly. Mister Fear scrambled backwards on the ground, barely able to get to his feet and run away.

“Please… please…!” he pleaded. “I’m sorry! Please don’t hurt me! Please!!!”

“What’s wrong?” a gruff and devilish voice muttered. “Scared?” The shadow raised its foot unnaturally high and brought it down on Mister Fear’s leg, another ghastly snap of bone filling the air. Mister Fear howled and groveled as he grasped his broken limb, almost as if he were trying to put it back together.

The monster made no noise, but it turned to face Karen and Foggy.

“Stay back!” Karen raised her gun again, unsure if even a bullet would be enough to stop it if it got any closer. 

But still obscured by the darkness, the monster spoke shakily. “Karen…?” 

She lowered her gun only a little, but she could almost recognize the voice that just uttered her name. The sounds of bones snapping and horrible screaming still rang in her head as she called, almost in disbelief, “Matt?”

Foggy peeked around Karen’s side and tried to look closer. “Matt, is that you?”

The dark figure heaved out a shuddering gasp. “Foggy…? What are you guys doing here?”

“We were just about to look for you,” Foggy rounded Karen to approach him, stepping over the unsettling amount of unconscious bodies littering the ground.. Karen put her gun away and followed. Foggy continued nervously. “Things seem really weird right now. I’m not gonna lie, what you did just now is definitely up there. But we just wanted to make sure you were--”

The monster stepped forward into the light. Matt was clad in his armored Daredevil suit. But it was different now. Though Foggy remembered the design, it was black from head to toe, save for the suit’s eyes which were an ominous blood red. Matt’s mouth hung open. He couldn’t see his old friends, but their scents and voices were unmistakable to him. 

Foggy and Karen stumbled backwards. It was as if a piece of the darkness in the alley broke off and took on a human form. They could hardly hide how terrified they were. 

“Matt…” Karen muttered, trying not to sound scared. “It’s been a day. What happened to you?”

Matt turned around, almost ashamed that his friends should see him like this after all this time. The past five years came rushing back to him, yet all he could remember anymore was a bloody rainfall in a world on fire. “It’s been too long. Longer than you realize.”

“What do you mean?” Foggy asked, trying to be there for Matt like he always was.

Matt wanted to turn back to his friends. He didn’t need to hold them to know they were real, but he wanted to be with them once more. Instead, he slinked further into the darkness that he resembled far too well. “You two need to stay away from me. For your own good.”

“Hold on, Matt! Wait!” Foggy ran forward to try and grab Matt by the arm. He grasped at nothing but air. As his eyes adjusted to the dark, he couldn’t see Matt anywhere anymore. Karen tried to look for him too, but he was nowhere to be found. There was only the darkness of the alley.

“Matt, come back,” Karen called out.

Foggy yelled with all the strength he could muster. “What the hell is going on, Matt!? What the _hell_ is going on!?”


End file.
